Soundtrack Review: Ironclad (2011)

Ironclad Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score Ironclad by Lorne Balfe.

"There is real depth here, and it doesn't fall into the realm of the typical RCP score"

In Ironclad, we meet a group of Knights Templar as their task is to defend Rochester Castle against the tyrannical King John. Set in the 13th century, director and wroiter Jonathan English has chosen Lorne Balfe as the composer. Previously Lorne has worked tightly with Hans Zimmer and probably still is but it is only his name on the cover. It will be exciting to hear what Balfe can contribute to this period movie and see if he can finally stand on his own two legs.

Track List

The Return

Lorne Balfe returns, but this time it seems he doing the solo thing but how will he fare without his scoring partner Hans Zimmer? For his first major film score, he has chosen is a historical film, and that's a very exciting and bold choice. There are so many ways you can go about scoring a period film and this one is set in the 13th century.

Lorne has perhaps wisely chosen to make it sound like it belongs in that time period. Starting with 'The Magna Carta' you have a lot of choir and you can feel the darkness that this score thrives in. It is a very dark and moody score and some RCP haters might enjoy this more than they realize. There is real depth here, and it doesn't fall into the realm of the typical RCP score.

You can hear in cues like 'The Battle Begins' and 'Hunger Sets In' how Lorne Balfe has grown as a composer and how he can easily compose many different styles of scores. In Ironclad he mostly keep it dark and rarely finds time to step out the schedule. The use of choir is a brilliant thing and it raises the score from being ok to quite good.

Conclusion

Lorne has still a lot of work to do to become a top composer, but with Ironclad he plants his flag as a very capable one. The next score will probably be more important as he choose where he wants to go. I quite liked Ironclad for what it is and this is surely an exciting score to hopefully an exciting story.

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Listen to the Ironclad soundtrack by Lorne Balfe below: